Harvard to Restrict Ties to Industry

Harvard Medical School physicians will be prohibited from participating in industry speakers' bureaus, and the school will limit its acceptance of commercial funding for CME and other activities, under policies to be adopted in the coming year.

The school's dean, Jeffrey Flier, MD, has accepted a package of recommendations by a faculty committee that would impose restrictions similar to those adopted by some other medical schools and healthcare organizations, including the Partners organization that runs several Harvard-affiliated hospitals.

"The committee's recommendations, as accepted by Dean Flier, reflect a careful consideration of how the policy can better guide faculty members in structuring specific relationships to emphasize transparency and eliminate marketing influence," according to a Harvard statement.

"While the revised policy will continue to contain specific limited prohibitions, the policy will not prevent or unduly limit the numerous productive interactions faculty may continue to have with their industrial partners," it continued.

The school emphasized that many relationships with industry will continue to be permitted, albeit with certain limits:

As before, according to the statement, Harvard faculty may:

Conduct research sponsored and supported by industry

Collaborate with industry on research protocols, and co-author publications derived from these collaborations

Consult for industry

Found biotechnology companies

License technology to or from medical product companies

Serve on scientific advisory boards

Hold equity in most medical companies

But certain lucrative relationships previously enjoyed by some faculty will be prohibited or severely limited, and the school itself will put industry more at arm's length.

Besides banning speakers' bureau participation, the policies would put a $10,000 limit on payments from "relevant businesses" to clinical researchers, including honoraria, premarket royalties, and other direct payments.

Clinical researchers also could hold no more than $30,000 in stock in public companies, and would be completely banned from having equity stakes in private firms, if their research involved those companies' products or services.

Caps on the allowable investment in companies related to faculty members' research were previously in place, but the new policy reduces them further.

Faculty members' reports of their financial interests are to be posted on the Internet, in dollar ranges to be established later.

They will also be forbidden to accept gifts, travel, or meals, "except in the course of allowed activities," the statement indicated, in line with voluntary codes of conduct established by industry trade groups including the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association.

Harvard Medical School itself will no longer accept industry funding of CME unless there are multiple sponsors and no single corporate entity provides more than half the total amount. Industry advertising at CME events will also be restricted: it can't appear in the same room as the CME activity, for example.

Company representatives, including those providing training on new equipment as well as sales and marketing personnel, will be permitted on campus only by invitation from faculty or designated staff. Companies are already prohibited from contacting medical students, but this policy will be "reinforced," Harvard said.

The new policies are part of a growing trend, as MedPage Todayreported in March, in which high-profile institutions such as the Mayo Clinic, Stanford University, and Johns Hopkins University have stiffened their faculty members' financial disclosure requirements and limited their acceptance of corporate cash and freebies.

Harvard is also following the example of Partners HealthCare, which operates two of Harvard's flagship teaching institutions, Brigham & Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital.

Late last year, Partners banned its physician-employees from serving on speakers' bureaus or accepting meals and gifts, and put strict limits on payments to department heads and other top staff. It also pledged to refuse corporate funding for specific CME programs, although companies may contribute to a central fund to support CME activities.

Harvard said the conflict of interest committee's recommendations would be incorporated into formal policy "within the next year."

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